Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has been working with Vodafone to implement a mobile working solution to help improve the efficiency and quality of patient care in the community.

The selection of Vodafone’s mobile technology is expected to enable each of the 400 community nursing staff to visit more patients every week across all seven localities in the county.

Vodafone’s total mobility platform – which includes TotalMobile’s mobile working solution – is enabling the community teams to securely access and update patient records, and review policies and critical data from their mobile devices in the field.

The new system also allows staff to make informed decisions in real time and talk their patients through treatment plans and equipment using visual aids on their mobile devices. They no longer have to travel to and from the office to access their daily rotas and update patient records between appointments. As a result, they are able to make up to two additional patient visits each day.

“While increasing efficiency is important, allowing our nurses to give the best possible patient care is our focus,” said Graham Softley, Associate IT Director for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. “Vodafone’s software solution has enabled us to provide a reliable, secure system to support our community staff. Regardless of their technical ability or knowledge, they are now able to access key information while visiting patients in the community or their own homes.”

“As well as allowing us to create a more sustainable, paper-free system, this technology is supporting a closer working relationship between our teams in the community and those working at our hospitals,” said Carolyn Morrice, Chief Nurse and Director of Patient Care Standards for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, “We strive to provide safe and compassionate care, every time for our patients and we believe that this investment will help us to achieve that goal.”

Vodafone is working in partnership with TotalMobile Limited to deliver the new system which is being funded by a grant from the Nursing Technology Fund – an initiative announced by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012 to support nurses, midwives and health visitors to make better use of digital technology.